Pope seeks forgiveness for sex abuse scandals in Chile

SANTIAGO: Pope Francis met alone Tuesday with a small group of victims of sexual abuse by priests in Chile, after he publicly asked for forgiveness and riot police broke up a protest near the first public mass of his South American visit.

During the "strictly private" meeting at the Vatican´s Apostolic Nunciature embassy in Santiago, the victims "spoke of their suffering to Pope Francis, who listened to them and prayed and cried with them," the Vatican said.

Earlier, the 81-year-old pontiff said: "I cannot begin to express the pain and shame that I feel over the irreparable harm caused to children by some ministers of the church," vowing to commit to ensure the abuses would never happen again.

Francis made those comments during a visit to President Michelle Bachelet´s official Moneda Palace residence, drawing applause from pilgrims watching on giant screens in a Santiago park where he later celebrated an open-air mass for some 400,000 people.

But the pope did not receive a universal welcome, with scuffles breaking out between riot police and demonstrators in the vicinity of O´Higgins Park.

Under the 1973-1990 Augusto Pinochet military dictatorship, the church was admired for its human rights advocacy role. But today, Chile is the Latin American country most critical of the Vatican.

Francis´s visit -- his first to Chile as pope -- has been overshadowed by a report outlining the depth of sexual abuse in the local church, and his appointment of a bishop who many here believe covered up the country´s most prominent sex abuse scandal.

The US-based NGO Bishop Accountability said ahead of the visit that almost 80 Roman Catholic clergy members had been accused of sexually abusing children in Chile since 2000.

For some victims, the pope´s request for forgiveness did not go far enough.

The pain was shared not only by victims and their families, he told them, but also by the clergy.

"I know that at times you have been insulted in the metro or walking in the street, and that by going around in clerical attire in many places, you pay a heavy price," Francis said.

"Have the courage to ask to be pardoned," he summoned them.

In his homily at the mass, where the congregation included Mapuche women in traditional dress, Francis called for the rights and culture of indigenous people to be respected, so they could be treated as "a worthy child of this country."